Freight Carriers Research Articles

Police Oversight of Legality in Railway Freight Transport in Russian Empire During World War I

This article analyzes the activities of the gendarmerie railway police in ensuring compliance by freight carriers with prohibitions and restrictions on the export of certain raw materials and goods during World War I. Based on documentary materials, it reveals the content of the state policy of the Russian Empire regarding measures to halt the supply of essential resources to the Central Powers’ armies. The study of the administrative documentation of the railway police indicates that particular attention was paid to monitoring freight transport at border stations. The issue of police support for the stable functioning of railways under wartime conditions is explored. Gendarmerie officers facilitated the prioritization of military cargo movement along steel corridors. A critical responsibility of the gendarmerie was uncovering collusion among railway employees and shippers to manipulate train speeds for illicit speculative profit amid commodity shortages. The study concludes that the gendarmerie railway police played a significant role in overseeing the legality of freight transport during World War I. However, amid the disorganization of state mechanisms and deepening crises in Russian society, ensuring uninterrupted and effective railway operations proved impossible.

Prioritizing freight carrier selection factors with the best worst method

Prioritizing freight carrier selection factors with the best worst method

Logistics potential to ensure the resilience of the Ukrainian economic system facing global challenges

The aim of this paper is to assess the logistics potential to ensure the resilience of the economic system of Ukraine in the face of global challenges. The methods used in the study include: structural-dynamic, determinological, correlation analysis, index method, graphical and cartographic methods. The calculations were based on open data from analytical studies on the development of transport and logistics, as well as data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The results of the study confirmed the hypothesis that high logistics potential, which is determined by the effectiveness of customs and border control, the quality of trade and transport infrastructure, the ease of organization of delivery, and the quality of logistics services, is the driver of the resilience of socio-economic systems of countries. The reduction of the logistical potential of the economic system of Ukraine in the conditions of a full-scale war is shown. This decrease resulted from blocked operation of a number of logistics routes and branches of the transport and logistics sphere and destroyed transport infrastructure objects as a result of hostilities and missile attacks.A change in the vector of export-import flows and their reorientation by means of transport was noted. Drivers of strengthening the logistics potential of the Ukrainian economic system are the transformation of the transport and logistics system, deepening cooperation with neighboring countries, systematic state support for the development of freight transportation by rail, compliance with European standards, and creation of Ukrzaliznytsia’s own freight carrier company that will work outside Ukraine. AcknowledgmentThis study was carried out within the framework of the international project “Increasing the capacity of freight transportation infrastructure on EU-Ukraine borders” (№ 22220189) implemented under the Visegrad Grant+ Programme.

Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis of a Logistics Service Supply Chain Cooperation Mechanism for Network Freight Platforms

The rapid development of network freight platforms has directly increased the level of social logistics resource collaboration and improved both the efficiency and quality of logistics industry services. As a bilateral platform that connects freight shippers and freight carriers, the organizational structure and operational mode of network freight platforms differ substantially from those of traditional logistics service providers. In this paper, a tripartite evolutionary game model is constructed in which a network freight platform, freight shipper, and freight carrier are considered, and the evolutionary stability strategies of the parties and the tripartite system are dynamically analyzed. The reliability of the model is verified through a numerical case, and several countermeasures have been proposed to improve the stability of the system based on the sensitivity analysis of important parameters. This paper helps standardize the principal behavior of all parties under the network freight mode, reduce the default risk of all parties, and improve the overall cooperation stability of the logistics service supply chain.

The impact and value of information system audit enterprises risk management influencing quality assurance and system optimization—a touch from supply chain domains

The industries significantly rely on information technology for effective operations; however, there are hazards like data breaches and system breakdowns. Information system audits are essential to reducing these risks, ensuring quality control, and optimizing the system. These audits evaluate gaps in controls, non-compliance concerns, and vulnerabilities, allowing for the installation of efficient risk mitigation measures. Information system audits are essential for locating and reducing hazards related to an organization's information systems.Vulnerabilities, threats, and control flaws can be found through routine audits, which then allows for the deployment of the necessary controls and risk-reduction measures. Additionally, audits support quality assurance by assessing data reliability, accuracy, and completeness, as well as system performance, regulatory compliance, and industry best practices.The deployment of remedial steps to improve data integrity and system reliability is made possible by their assistance in assisting organizations in identifying gaps and flaws. Information system audits also aid system optimization by revealing details about the functionality and performance of the system.  An extensive evaluation of the literature and case study analysis was used to perform the research.For the analysis of this research, a sequential mixed technique (qualitative and quantitative) study was conducted. Delphi questionnaires were used twice to conduct the study. It encompasses organizations and entities involved in various aspects including but not limited to logistics companies, freight carriers, shipping and distribution firms, public transportation agencies, and supply chain service providers. Data from the semi-structured interviews for the qualitative study were collected via a Delphi survey, and 14 nodes and six themes were then generated.Audits assist organizations in identifying areas for improvement and informing decisions about system upgrades or alterations by analyzing system utilization, response times, resource allocation, and scalability. The results of this study highlight the importance of information system audits in assuring the prosperity, effectiveness, and resilience of businesses engaged in supply chain operations. Organizations can attain a greater level of enterprise risk management, quality assurance, and system optimization, which will improve supply chain operations in general, by managing risks, improving data quality, and optimizing system performance.

The impact of politics on transport system of the Russian Federation

The article presents a detailed analysis of the impact of policy on the transport system of the Russian Federation. The main directions of state policy related to transport are studied, considering both global trends and regional characteristics. The article pays special attention to safety issues, environmental aspects and meeting the needs of passengers and cargo carriers. The impact of political decisions on creating a safe transport environment, preventing accidents and reducing the number of victims is analyzed. Meeting the needs of passengers and freight carriers is considered an important aspect of transportation policy development and implementation. The article also discusses the main regulatory documents governing transportation infrastructure in Russia, including federal laws and government resolutions. These documents establish rules and requirements for the development and operation of transportation infrastructure, as well as regulate the activities of transportation companies and organizations. The paper also examines the impact of policy on the transportation infrastructure of two major cities in Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg. These cities have complex transportation systems with high passenger and freight volumes. Based on the analysis, conclusions are formulated to assess the results of policy influence on the development of the transportation system in Russia. These include evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions, meeting their objectives, identifying problems and making recommendations for improving transport policies. In conclusion, the authors emphasize the importance of developing and implementing sound transportation policies to create a modern, efficient, and sustainable transportation system in Russia that can meet contemporary challenges and societal needs.

On urban co-modality: Non-cooperative and cooperative games among freight forwarder, carrier and transit operator

This paper models a public transit system that can serve both passengers and urban freight, i.e., urban co-modality, and investigates the system-wide impacts of co-modality on existing urban freight forwarding service, freight carrier and urban transit services. In the co-modal system, we model one transit operator that serves passengers and provides co-modal services, one freight forwarder (an intermediary) that serves freight customers and uses freight transportation services provided by a freight carrier or the transit operator, and one freight carrier that provides services to the freight forwarder. We derive the analytical conditions under which co-modal operations can improve the profits of the freight forwarder, carrier and transit operator, and the consumer surpluses of freight customers and passengers compared with the status quo without co-modality. We also analytically and numerically compare the optimal operation decisions, the three operators’ profits, and the users’ welfare under different games among the operators (non-cooperative and cooperative games). Our results show that when the three operators are in a non-cooperative relationship, the freight carrier might have a profit loss due to the decreased freight units allocated to the direct road channel; whereas, both the freight forwarder and the transit operator would have profit gains from the co-modality. The numerical studies further reveal that to ensure a Pareto-improving co-modal system, the operators have to reduce the freight/transit service fare and co-modal transportation price.

What to do in response to toll increases: A behavioral analysis of freight carriers in New York State

Freight carriers’ behavior greatly varies given the number of parties involved in the process from the origin end to the destination end and the heterogeneity of commodities. Accordingly, their reaction to transportation policies including road pricing is composed of multidimensional choices, e.g., they can take a series of actions in multiple stages in response to policies, which have been overlooked in the literature. To better understand carriers’ behavior, this paper investigated freight carriers’ behavior in reaction to toll increases in New York State using a stated preference survey. The following four reactions in response to hypothetical toll increase scenarios were jointly investigated: (a) passing on the costs to receivers; (b) reducing delivery frequency; (c) reducing travel distance on toll roads; and (d) changing time of day of travel. The descriptive analysis showed that reducing mileage on toll roads and passing on the costs are the two most preferred reactions while changing delivery time to avoid high toll is the least favorable reaction. A multivariate Probit model was also developed to quantitatively explore factors affecting the willingness to take the reactions. As a result, all the four reactions were positively correlated, suggesting that the reactions selected by carriers are complementary to each other. Factors (including commodity type and company size) affecting each reaction were investigated. Implications for planning and policymaking based on the results were also discussed.

Le travail invisible ou quand l’activité se fait hors du système d'information numérique

Le travail invisible ou quand l’activité se fait hors du système d'information numérique

Estimation of transport service quality using an ordinal priority model

Service quality in any sector is determined by its users, so their input must be taken into account when evaluating services. This is true for freight transport. However, as transport service quality can only be evaluated after its use and the criteria considered by customers may differ from those deemed relevant by experts, the carrier selection process is very complex. This research was conducted to provide transport service users with a simple decision making mechanism for selecting the optimal freight carrier among multiple alternatives. The model utility was assessed by applying it to a real case and comprehensive sensitivity analysis was conducted to confirm its robustness.

Rice supply chain network equilibrium optimization using the successive average method

Maximizing the surplus received by each actor is an ongoing issue in the current rice supply chain model. This study assesses a supply chain network that involves five business actors, namely collectors, wholesalers, retailers, demand markets and freight carriers. The interconnectedness of the actors results in a dynamic supply chain problem and free competition. The Supply Chain Network Equilibrium (SCNE) method is commonly used to solve this problem but poses the important issue of the ease of computation. Another method to achieve network equilibrium is the method of successive average (MSA). The MSA is more capable of optimization to generate accurate results with fewer iterations than the SCNE method. The simple case and real case results demonstrate that the MSA method can be used as an alternative for optimizing rice supply chains.

Pro-environmental elements in the business model of medium and large Polish road freight carriers

Purpose: The policy of sustainable development places requirements on businesses to reduce their negative environmental impact. One of the sectors of the economy that is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions is road transportation. Consideration of the European Union’s environmental goals is forcing road carriers to have environmental measures built into their business models. The purpose of the study was to learn how road carriers can reduce their negative environmental impact so that they can fit in with the goals of the environmental policy and to learn about the regulatory tools that the road carriers expect to be able to support these activities. Design/methodology/approach: Data for this study was collected in computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). The study was conducted in late 2021 and early 2022 by a Polish company that was responsible for the selection of the sample and the collection of the data. The survey was conducted on a sample of 146 medium and large Polish road freight carriers and was a continuation of a study carried out on the same sample of entities conducted in late 2019 and early 2020 using the same technique. Findings: As part of their fleet policy, in order to fit in with environmental goals, carriers base their business models on the purchase of new means of transportation that meet increasingly stringent emission standards and reinforce environmentally friendly attitudes by buying means of transportation with smaller engine displacement that is tailored to the needs arising from their operations. Pro-environmental operational activities of medium and large Polish road freight carriers involve the use of solutions that change the composition of exhaust gases (AdBlue) and reduce fuel consumption (lowering rolling resistance – energy-efficient tires and lowering air resistance – fairings), and the acquisition of pro-environmental driving skills (eco-driving). Other environmentally friendly measures are to increase the utilisation of the vehicle capacity (cargo consolidation) and to eliminate empty runs by looking for cargo to be carried on the way back and using route planning software. Originality/value: The paper indicates the methods to reduce the negative environmental impact considered in the business models of medium and large road freight carriers, so that they fit in with the environmental policy goals, and indicates their expectations associated with the support for the achievement of zero-emission transportation. The results can be useful in the adoption on both the European and Polish level of policies leading to a zero-carbon economy. Keywords: sustainable business models, road freight transport. Category of the paper: research paper.

Using Environmental Cost to Evaluate Air Freight Traffic in a Turkish International Airport

Air freight transportation has major advantages such as rapid and safe transit of goods compared to other transportation modes. As well as other transportation sectors growth rate of air freight transportation is related to global supply chain. Air freight sector fundamentally includes freight forwarders, integrators, warehousing, customs, agents, airport terminal operators, and air freight carriers. Cost of air freight transportation is dependent to carrier expenses including costs of ground and flight crew, fuel, aircraft maintenance and insurance. But environmental prevention costs are usually missed out and disregarded. But environmental costs gained importance for many enterprises as well as airway companies after Kyoto and Paris Agreements. The current paper describes an approach to calculate prevention cost of air freight operations induced air pollutants. For this purpose, air freight traffic in an International Airport located in Isparta, Turkey is considered to present the approach. At the end of the study environmental cost of each air pollutant emissions, annual environmental cost of flight operations in the airport, and annual environmental cost per unit freight are calculated and compared in terms of yearly variation. The presented approach is employed to evaluate environmental costs related to air freight traffic in an International Airport for the first time.

An optimization-based decision support tool for air cargo loading

In this research, we study the air cargo loading problem that aims to assign cargo containers to appropriate loading positions within a freight carrier aircraft. Here, as we deal with an aircraft that has been specially reconfigured into a freight aircraft from originally a passenger aircraft, this leads to a novel air cargo loading problem that is subject to four types of constraints, namely: assignment constraints; maximum position weight limits and zero fuel weight limit considerations; center of gravity (CG) envelope limiting conditions, which are based on the aircraft weight and fluctuating CG during the fueling process; respecting panel weight limits (a legacy constraint from the passenger aircraft structure), which are related to the CG envelope; and finally, lateral imbalance limits for double-row cargo configurations. We minimize the deviation from an optimal CG value, which is determined based on fuel economy and safety restrictions. This problem is formulated as a 0–1 mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, which is subsequently linearized, and four different types of aircraft configurations are utilized to test our formulation. The results indicate that significant improvements can be achieved as compared to a more traditionally used method in the freight cargo industry. Finally, we highlight a user-oriented, functional, and graphically appealing decision support tool, based on the proposed optimization framework, that has been developed and deployed at a major air cargo operator in Singapore.

Profit Allocation Problem and Algorithm of Network Freight Platform under Carbon Trading Background.

With the gradual popularization of carbon trading, individual carbon emission behavior will come with carbon costs, which will have a significant impact on the network freight platform carrier drivers. Therefore, in order to improve the stability within the network freight platform, this paper considers the fairness of benefit distribution among network freight carriers and aims to offset the impact of carbon cost to a greater extent by reducing the relative deprivation of the network freight platform carrier group, so as to finally realize the benign operation of network freight. This paper introduces a number of indicators such as contribution value, expectation realization degree, and relative deprivation feeling, and establishes a dynamic benefit distribution optimization model oriented by relative deprivation feeling. Based on the basic characteristics of the problem, the ant colony labor division model is extended, and the corresponding algorithm is designed to solve the problem. By introducing the contribution value, contribution rate and expected return to reset the stimulus value of the environment and the response threshold of agent, the relative deprivation sense is used to quantify the degree of unfair benefit distribution, which is used as a benchmark to dynamically coordinate the benefit distribution of the carrier group and optimize the benefit distribution scheme. The experimental results show that the extended model and algorithm designed in this paper can significantly reduce the relative deprivation perception of the carrier group in the online freight platform at a low cost.

Intermodal transportation hub location optimization with governments subsidies under the Belt and Road Initiative

Driven by globalization, the COVID-19 outbreak has severely impacted global transport and logistics systems. To better cope with this globalization crisis, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—based on the concept of cooperation—is more important than ever in the post-pandemic era. Taking the BRI as the background, we design an intermodal hub-and-spoke network to provide reference for governments along BRI routes to improve their cross-border transportation system and promote economic recovery. In the context of the BRI, local governments at different nodes have incentives to subsidize hub construction and/or rail transportation to boost economic development. We consider co-opetition behavior among different levels of government caused by subsidies in this intermodal hub location problem, which we call the intermodal hub location problem based on government subsidies. We establish a two-stage mixed-integer programming model. In the first stage, local governments provide subsidies, then the central government decides the number and location of hubs. In the second stage, freight carriers choose the optimal route to transport the goods. To solve the model, we design an optimization method combining a population-based algorithm using contest theory. The results show that rail subsidies are positively correlated with construction subsidies but are not necessarily related to the choice of hubs. Compared with monomodal transportation, intermodal transportation can reduce costs more effectively when there are not too many hubs and the cost of different modes of transportation varies greatly. The influences of local government competition and hub construction investment on network design and government subsidies are further examined.

Investigating the environmental awareness of Logistics Service Providers. The case of Italy

Environmental sustainability in transportation operations is acquiring an increasing importance in recent years and a lot of Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) are including green practices in their business. However, the interests of logistics operators and the related level of awareness about the adoption of environmental friendly practices are still not deeply analyzed in literature. Therefore, the proposed paper is intended to investigate the perception of LSPs about the environmental issues and their willingness of pursuing future green strategies. To this end, based on a literature analysis aimed at identifying a comprehensive list of green practices, a questionnaire survey is administered to LSPs operating in the Italian market. The data gathered are then analyzed via the Kruskal-Wallis test and the questionnaire outcomes discussed with the LSPs participating to the survey through face to face interviews. Results show that the environment is highly considered by the freight carriers of the sample, both small and large ones. In addition, personnel involved in different company roles appear to pay diverse levels of attention to the sustainability issue. In particular, the reduction of pollutant is considered more crucial for employees in charge of dealing with operations (median equal to 5) and reverse logistics is perceived less important by managers (median equal to 3). The outcomes of the study might support companies to achieve sustainability and promote the green awareness issue. At the same time, policy makers might be facilitated by this study in designing environmental friendly programs in the logistics field.

Evolutionary game analysis of three parties in logistics platforms and freight transportation companies’ behavioral strategies for horizontal collaboration considering vehicle capacity utilization

In China, logistics platforms are an effective way to solve vehicle capacity utilization using information sharing. However, most logistics platforms do not possess operational sustainability due to excessive profit-seeking. To address this problem, conflicts of interest among freight transportation participants are discussed using a stakeholder approach. A three-player evolutionary game model (TEGM) is developed to analyze the interactions among freight carriers, freight shippers, and logistics platforms. Then, the asymptotic equilibrium and evolutionary stability strategies of the three-player game are analyzed. The results indicate that a high-level positive network externality is the driving force behind the logistics platform’s “high-level service”. A fairness payment incentive guarantees a “sharing” strategy for freight carriers and shippers. When the high-level positive network externality is limited and lower than a threshold value, there is no stable equilibrium point in the TEGM. A government tax incentive cannot change the freight carriers’ and shippers’ strategy to participate in this horizontal collaboration system, except for the logistics platform’s probability of providing “high-level service”. However, the behavioral strategies of the freight transportation participants can be changed to achieve the sustainability of freight transportation by reducing the value-added tax rate through the logistics platform and increasing the high-level positive network externality of the logistics platform and other participants’ perceived fairness through a payment incentive. Finally, suggestions for regulating the behaviors of freight transportation participants and promoting the sustainability of freight transportation are discussed.

A Variable Neighborhood Descent Matheuristic for the Drone Routing Problem with Beehives Sharing

In contemporary urban logistics, drones will become a preferred transportation mode for last-mile deliveries, as they have shown commercial potential and triple-bottom-line performance. Drones, in fact, address many challenges related to congestion and emissions and can streamline the last leg of the supply chain, while maintaining economic performance. Despite the common conviction that drones will reshape the future of deliveries, numerous hurdles prevent practical implementation of this futuristic vision. The sharing economy, referred to as a collaborative business model that foster sharing, exchanging and renting resources, could lead to operational improvements and enhance the cost control ability and the flexibility of companies using drones. For instance, the Amazon patent for drone beehives, which are fulfilment centers where drones can be restocked before flying out again for another delivery, could be established as a shared delivery systems where different freight carriers jointly deliver goods to customers. Only a few studies have addressed the problem of operating such facilities providing services to retail companies. In this paper, we formulate the problem as a deterministic location-routing model and derive its robust counterpart under the travel time uncertainty. To tackle the computational complexity of the model caused by the non-linear energy consumption rates in drone battery, we propose a tailored matheuristic combining variable neighborhood descent with a cut generation approach. The computational experiments show the efficiency of the solution approach especially compared to the Gurobi solver.

The Backhaul Profit Maximization Problem: Optimization Models and Solution Procedures

We present a compact mixed integer program (MIP) for the backhaul profit maximization problem in which a freight carrier seeks to generate profit from an empty delivery vehicle’s backhaul trip from its last scheduled delivery to its depot by allowing it to deviate from the least expensive (or fastest) route to accept pickup-and-delivery requests between various points on the route as allowed by its capacity and required return time. The MIP is inspired by a novel representation of multicommodity flow that significantly reduces the size of the constraint matrix compared with a formulation based on the classical node-arc representation. This, in turn, leads to faster solution times when using a state-of-the-art MIP solver. In an empirical study of both formulations, problem instances with 10 potential pickup/drop-off locations and up to 72 pickup-and-delivery requests were solved an average 1.44 times faster in real time with our formulation, whereas instances with 20 locations and up to 332 pickup-and-delivery requests were solved an average of 11.88 times faster. The largest instances in the comparative study had 60 locations and up to 3,267 pickup-and-delivery requests; these instances required an average of more than 54 hours of real time to solve with the node-arc–based formulation but were solved in an average of under two hours of real time using our compact formulation. We also present a heuristic algorithm based on our compact formulation that finds near optimal solutions to each of the 60-location instances within 22 minutes of real time and near optimal solutions to instances with up to 80 locations within four and a half hours of real time.